As long as you don't run afoul of Section 183 (which is chunk of law that says you need to be doing STR thing to make profit) and don't get torpedoed by Section 280A (which provides the mixed used dwelling rules), sure, STR still works.But my guess is, based on question, that one of the above chunks of tax law probably does blow deduction in your situation.

As far as allowing "outside" smokers, it's been my experience that they seem way too willing to just open a window in the dead of winter and blow smoke outside, even if it's against the rules.

They're also happy to commit to whatever your closing date is and blow right through it.

Attracting quality  might cost you more upfront but long term gains blow everything else away.

This is where over improving or having underestimated the reno costs and overestimated the ARV will be a death blow.  

You owe it to all of us scrapping not to blow this.  

It's not fair to them to walk the interior and then after the first clean you say oh by the way I need you to blow of the porch, check and wipe down the grill, knock cobwebs off the front door area, etcetera. 

I'm convinced that a lot of the capital calls are as much about shoring up the operational bottom line to prevent total collapse and blowing up their future funds as it is about stabilizing & improving existing funds.

Jersey blows for all of that.

I received a decent chunk of money, enough to start up so instead of blowing it off I want to make a good investment to generate passive income while I’m going into trade school.